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THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

^1?.l^'

C'V.^li^nti.'i-A

THE FURNITURE DESIGNS OF

THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

ARRANGED BY J. MUNRO BELL

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND CRITICAL ESTIMATE BV

ARTHUR HAYDEN

AUTHOR OF " CHATS ON OLD FURNITURE," ETC. ETC.

LONDON

GIBBINGS AND COMPANY, LIMITED

1 8 BURY STREET, W.C.

1910

The Kivenide Press Limited, Edinburgh

INTRODUCTION

CHIPPENDALE, HEPPLEWHITE AND SHERATON
FURNITURE DESIGNS

HERE are many reasons why the second half of
the eighteenth century has especial attractions for
the connoisseur of l^nglish furniture. It was then
tor the first time that furniture designers and
cahinet-makers began to impress their personality
upon their work. There is English spirit enough
in much of the early Stuart oak furniture, sturdy
and national in its conception and treatment.
Italian and French inriuences had begun to divert the steady growth of
an English art but the stream of evolution continued in spite ot extraneous
foreign luxuries.

In Charles II. 's day the fashion for the moment swerved to Portuguese
leather-back chairs in compliment to the Queen Consort, Catherine of
Braganza. Later the strong Dutch influence of the court of William of
Orange had lasting effects on the decoration of the English home. Much
of the furniture of that period is as Dutch in origin as the blue Delft jars
at Hampton Court. Queen Anne only reigned fourteen years and the style
associated with her is the beginning of homely art and interior decoration
of a home-loving race. Early Georgian days saw walnut established in
succession to the Tudor and Stuart oak. In the opening years of the
eighteenth century the claw-and-ball foot made its appearance. It was an
adaptation, through Plolland, of the Oriental design of the dragon's claw
holding a pearl. To go further back it must not be forgotten that before
the Civil War interrupted the steady growth of art under Charles I. that
the tapestry factory at Mortlake was producing coverings for cushions and
chairs and day-beds, and bed-hangings in imitation of Gobelins. One
other point must not be omitted; as early as 171 5, the second year of
Anne's reign, mahogany was in use as a luxurious wood and at Ham House
there is a suite of furniture of this date in mahoganv.

The time was ripe for the man, and under various influences — the
heavy style of solid design, as for instance the wide splat-back chair and
settee ; the importation of I'rench taste in sweeping rococo ornament ; and

vi INTRODUCTION

the hishion for Chinese design introduced by Sir William Chambers —
decorative art was inclined to get out of bounds. Thomas Chippendale,
with the fine selective faculty with which genius alone is endowed, took
from these apparently incongruous materials motifs for his designs and
welded them in one harmonious whole. His Director published in 1754
marks a new era in English design. From his day individuality became
the note in furniture.

Up till then, whether it be the age of oak, or the age of walnut, the
terms Tudor, Stuart, Jacobean, William and Mary, Anne, or Georgian, are
names applied by modern connoisseurs to various styles. After Chippen-
dale furniture began to be classified according to the particular designers
or makers.

This volume is a reissue of his celebrated work : " 'Ihe Gentleman
and Cabinet-Makers Director, being a large Collection of the most Elegant
and Useful Designs of Household Furniture in the Gothic, Chinese, and
Modern taste . . . Calculated to improve and refne the present Taste, and
suited to the Fancy and Circumstances of Persons in all Degrees of Life^
The importance of this book of designs cannot be overrated. It- was
subscribed for in Yorkshire, in Westmorland, in Devon, in Ireland.
Copies of it found their way to America and a school of wood-carvers and
cabinet-makers at Newport created new traditions.

These books of design are as valuable as the drawings of the old masters.
The Leonardo da Vincis, the Albert Diirers, and the Holbeins treasured
from V^ienna to Windsor are not more suggestive to the young designer,
to the student or to the collector than are these books issued in the middle
eighteenth century by the greatest masters of English furniture design.

For fiftv years the school of Chippendale held sway, from 1730 to
1780. The Hepplewhite school may be reckoned as from about 1775 to
1795, and the Sheraton school from about 1790 to 1805, and behind all
was the great and pronounced influence of the Brothers Adam with their
absorption of classicism and severe forms coincident with the French
chaste classic styles.

In the contemplation of these series of designs it should be borne in
mind that Chippendale and his school are the embodiment of form, and
that Sheraton and his school are the embodiment of colour, as applied
to furniture. Hepplewhite has a relationship to both. He reached his
results by form, and he employed marqueterie and the subtleties of
Sheraton in many of his effects.

But since the advent of personalities, Chippendale, Hepplewhite and
Sheraton arc not the only names. All these eighteenth-century volumes
of design are becoming scarce and difficult to procure in any state, and
consequently rapidly increasing in price. Undoubtedly the rarest of all
the books at this time is " Ince and Mayhe'w s Household Fur?iiture,

INTRODUCTION vii

consisting of above 300 designs in the most eiegant tuste, both Useful
and Ornamental^ 95 beautifully engraved plates of Hall Chairs, Lanthorns,
Staircase Lights, Sideboards, C law-Tables, Tea Kettle Stands, Bookcases,
Secretaires, Library - Steps, H'riting Tables, Music Desks, Can-jpy Beds,
French Bed Chairs, Dressing Tables, Book and China Shelves, &c., -with
descriptions in Enniish and French, Published bv Ince and Mayheu\
Cabinet-Makers Broad Street, Golden Square in 174S," that is to say a few
years earlier than Chippendale's Director. The value oi this is ikjw about
j(^6o. There is the book, ot designs by Inigo Jones, Lord Burlington, and
Kent, with 53 engraved plates of designs for Chimney-pieces, Ceilings,
Sides of Rooms, Piers, etc., executed at Chiswick, Stow, Houy-hton, etc.,
published in 1743, which is worth about f^-^. There is the '■'■Genteel
Household Furniture in the Present Taste by a Society of Upholsterers,
Cabinet-Makers Gfr.," published in 1765, with 100 plates, and a second
edition with 350 designs on 120 copper-plates containing designs of chairs
by Manwaring, Ince, Mayhew, Johnson, and t)thers, this edition sells for
/,7, I OS. There h ''■ JJ'orks in Architecture" (R. & J. Adam), published
in 1 773- 1 779, containing plates engraved by Bartolozzi, Pastorini, Vivarez,
and others, with interiors and designs of Chimney-pieces, Ceilings,
Furniture, Metal-work, etc. Volumes i. and ii. of this bring about X^3o,
and they contain designs for Sion House, Lord Mansfield's House at Ken
Wood, Sir Watkin Wynn's House in St fames' Square, and others, including
the Admiralty Offices, Whitehall.

In tact, subsequent to Chippendale's day there was a plethora of books
ot design, and these as a literature of the subject are ot superlative value to
the student, the collector, and the connoisseur, each approaching English
furniture from his own standpoint. The tollv ot those who contend that
the twentieth century should produce a school ot its own is retuted by
these old books of design. The evolution ot English turniture is well
assured. The twentieth century is piroducing a school. The great hiatus
of the Victorian days when, not only in this country but in general,
decorative and applied art had sunk to a low level has been bridged over
by such volumes as are here reproduced. The student ot design, it he
be wise, will avoid the nightmare of modern turniture exhibited at the
Bethnal Green Museum, will eschew the Great Exhibition period, and
will essay to educate his eye with models of the days when men designed
in rich and gay profusion for the downright love ot their cratt. Indi-
viduality was killed by the growth of machine-made mouldings, and
machine-made art lacks the repose wh.ich is so pronounced a feature of
eighteenth-century and of earlier work.

The restless cataclysm of design which heralded the nineteenth
century, when every ten years had its particular style, boded ill tor the
steady growth of national art. We catch the note of detiant, almost

viii INTRODUCTION

strident, rivalry in Slicraton's allusion to Chippendale's work. "As for
the designs themselves they are wholly antiquated and laid aside, though
possessed of great merit according to the times in which they were
executed." But we who are able to survey the field of furniture dis-
passionately can give to Chippendale what is his, and to Sheraton what is
his also, and can value correctly the Brothers Adam with their great and
permanent inriuence, and assign places in relative importance to Hepple-
white, Manwaring, Ince, Mayhew, and the others.

As to what is and what is not original, to quote Sir Roger de
Coverley, " much might be said on both sides," but the difference between
genius and mediocrity is the appalling lack ot the sense ot proportion in
the latter. A genius such as Chippendale could take details from the
Dutch cabinet-maker, from the rococo style of Louis XV., and from the
Chinese fretworker, and combine them with perfect harmony into some-
thing at once true and beautiful. But he rejected more than he selected.
Perhaps it is not so much the art of selection as the art of rejection
which counts. It is the true sanity of genius to reject wisely. The
mediocre worker seems eifted in selectino- the worst features of his

o o

prototypes and amplifying them. Johnson's designs after Chippendale
are practically caricatures since they embody Chippendale's worst styles
and most assailable points in design.

Hence the value to the student in design of being able readily
to pass in review the long line of furniture designers covering an
appreciable distance of time and the ability to reject the banalities of
the early and middle nineteenth century. Books of design issued by
such men as Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton and others, dated,
and bearing the authentic impress of the designer with the pride
of the craftsman in his conceptions, mark at once with authenticity
sharp divisions between the styles. They crystallise the message which
each sent forth to his generation. In comparison, each with each,
they enable the subtleties of invention and divergence of treatment to
be criticised. In point of time they overlap, but in regard to style
there are personal idiosyncrasies which stand out. Cabinet-makers up
and down the country followed with more or less personal additions the
designs of these great masters. For instance, Ireland evolved a Chippen-
dale school of her own, with carving in low relief and native touches
of design easily recognisable. The auction-room to-day finds collectors
and experts joining issue as to exactitudes of origin. These books of
design come therefore as the key to an admittedly golden period in
English furniture design.

Arthur Havden.

THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

HUNDRED years had seen great clianges in English domestic
tiirnitiire. The year 1750 found Chippendale in full stride.
A century earlier the chair was conventional to a degree ; there
was the Italianised chair which the noble families brought
straight from the Continent or had made in this country by foreign
workmen. But the early Stuart furniture, such as at Knole, in the possession
ot Lord Sackville, came to an abrupt end in Puritan days. Gate-leg tables
ot oak, and stiff straight-back, leather-seated chairs, termed Cromwellian,
offended no man. The Stuart chest of drawers and the wide arm-chair,
with its rosettes and conventional carving, are a long way from theji'/h'sse
and the well-balanced proportions of Chippendale's ribbon -backed chairs
and his fine sweep and exuberance of carving in his bureaus and sideboards.
Between the severer forms of oak and the middle eighteenth century
there comes the walnut school with all its diversification ot form. The
chair, tor instance, underwent several changes. Its early straight-back torm
began to assume various lighter styles. From the leather back of Puritan
simplicity or of Portuguese embossed work, it passed through the stage
of intricate cane-work in the late Charles II. period and James II. days, and
followed later the Dutch models with fiddle-back splats. Immediately
prior to Chippendale heavy solid chairs with claw-and-ball feet and massive
splats were in vogue. Walnut was mainly the medium, and in the Queen
Anne and early Georgian periods lightness and elegance were exceptional.
Solidity and homeliness were the prevailing notes. From the days of
William, Holland had loomed large on the horizon of English furniture
design. It was as though the great school of French design had never
been, till Chippendale assimilated what was most suitable for the new
mahogany then coming into fashion.

He followed on with true inspiration the Qiieen Anne and the early
Georgian prototypes. He lightened the lines and added balance to the
proportions of unwieldy productions of designers with a lesser sense of
nicety. Form, symmetry, balance, harmony, these are his keynotes. He
revelled in luxurious carving-. The hanein"; wooden curtains at Harewood
House are a tribute to his skill as a woodcarver ; painted a dull blue, to this
day these simulate textile hangings. His ribband-pattern chair backs are
0 ix

X THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

at once a revolution in English design. Their lightness, their grace, their
elegance, and their due sense of restraint must strike succeeding ages, as
they struck his contemporaries, with continued admiration. In his Chinese
fretwork for occasional tables and candle-stands the slender supports and
dainty character are surprisingly original. He had acclimatised the salient
ideas of the French designers, and had welded them to the stable founda-
tions of the Anglo-Dutch school with such mastery of technique, that tor
the first time in the history of English furniture design Continental makers
turned their eyes to this country in admiration of the styles in vogue here
and in search of new inspiration.

In producing his designs in the Director he admits that they are
capable of being pruned to meet the requirements of cabinet-makers. But
the style is there, and in many of the great collections examples exist which
evidently have been made according to the proportions of these published
designs. In regard to the practical value of his designs the working
drawings carry their own demonstration. Detail for detail his followers did
not accept. The provincial cabinet-maker had more limitations and less
experience in his art, consequently the school of Chippendale stretched
its arms far and wide, and the " Chippendale style " even in contemporary
days, though derivative, was not an exact copy of the master. To quote
Goethe, " There are many echoes but few voices." The fifteen copies of
the Director, for instance, which, according to the published list of sub-
scribers, went to Yorkshire, became the centres of new impulses ; and bearing
in mind that eighteenth-century cabinet-makers had a strong personality
ot their own, these fifteen copies produced something more than mere
slavish copyists.

When Chippendale published his Director he promulgated ideas in
English design the like of which had not penetrated less fashionable
centres than London. People of taste took their fashions from town, as
is seen from Addison and contemporary literature. The simple family of
the Vicar of Wakefield were easily imposed upon by two ladies from town
with manners and diction far from elegant. Chippendale was a pioneer,
his designs had a wide circulation, and his genius, like that of Josiah
Wedgwood, impressed itself on the art of his generation. The originality
of Chippendale was merged into the common style of the period, and the
publication of his book of designs had not a little to do with eclipsing
his own original creations. His followers and imitators were legion.
Having once grasped ' the cardinal points, eighteenth-century cabinet-
makers are eager to follow the new mode, —

Most can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed.

The three styles of Chippendale are clearly defined in the Director.
The commode-tables (pp. 37-39), the ribband-back chairs and firescreens.

THOMAS CHIPPENDALE xi

the pier-glass frames, and the cornice girandole (p. 14), are as French in
origin as the decorations of the salons at Versailles under the Regency and
later under Louis ^linzc. What Caffieri executed in graceful curves and
chased metal mountings, where fantastic details ran riot in rococo orna-
ment, Chippendale carved in mahogany. His elahorate foliage and the
delicacy ot his ribbands and love-knots come as a new note in English
furniture. What Grinling Gibbons did with ease, with his fruits and his
garlands in the soft lime wood, in cornices and mouldings and architectural
details, Chippendale recreated in miniature in furniture.

French as is the tenor of his style, everywhere the Chinese incident
peeps forth. Some of his designs are admittedly Chinese, as in the fret-
work chairs (p. 6), or in the frets and writing-table (pp. 31, 32), or in the
hanging china shelves (pp. 33-35). In others it is discernible in small
details such as the cornice girandole (p. 14), French in every detail except
the apex, which discovers a seated Chinaman in a pagoda. Some of the
hanging shelves are almost replicas in form of pendant lamps in Chinese
temples. Even the chairs entitled French (p. 9) show in the designs on
the tapestry seats the Chinese junk, the drooping willow, and the mandarin
figures which were at the time being reproduced on the blue and white
Worcester porcelain — and Chippendale was a Worcester man. A set of
china cases (p. 49) are as Chinese in conception as though they had been
designed by an oriental hand. They are practically pagodas in miniature.

The Gothic style exhibits, as far as the designs go, Chippendale in his
least pleasing manner. Horace Walpole, with his stucco, sham, Gothic
villa at Strawberry Hill, had a lot to answer for. But among well-known
examples ot Gothic Chippendale, there are some fine specimens which
seem to indicate what Chippendale might have done had he elected to
revive the magnificence of the carving, with its delicate tracery which
has never been surpassed, of the early English chests of sixteenth-century
days.

As to his versatility, the chest of drawers and clothes press (p. 48)
stand for absolute simplicity. They are examples of the useful, and are
without a vestige of ornament, save a slight suggestion of fretwork in one.
Similarly some of his library tables might find a place in a well-furnished
office to-day without attracting undue attention in regard to their ornate
character.

That in his latter years he could so adapt his flowing stvle as to work in
conjunction with Robert Adam is a tribute to the greatness of Chippendale.
The library table at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire, serves as a famous example
of his severer classic work under newer inspirations. Tlie chairs designed
by Adam for Osterley are another case in point where Chippendale worked
on chaster lines.

That he used satinwood and emploved the most beautiful inlays of

xii THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

coloured woods and ivory is a proven fact. Twenty years before Sheraton
came to London, Chippendale had worked in this manner ; and at Hare-
wood House a fine suite of handsome furniture exists, enriched with
marqueterie on a glowing satinwood ground, which he executed in co-
operation with Robert Adam. The original invoices rendered by
"Chippendale, Haig & Co.," in 1773, are still in the possession of Lord
Harewood.

Little is known of Thomas Chippendale the first, of Worcester, who
migrated to London with his son, the great Thomas Chippendale. But
there is a third Thomas Chippendale, who carried on the traditions. The
firm was Chippendale, Haig & Co., till about 1796, when the last
Thomas Chippendale carried on the business alone at St Martin's Lane,
at the Haymarket, and at Jermyn Street. This Thomas Chippendale
exhibited five pictures at the Royal Academy, and was known as a fine
draughtsman and designer. He died in 1822.

In regard to the work of the great Chippendale and his son, the third
Thomas Chippendale, especially of course the father, and their visits to
the seats of noblemen, where they took a stafi^ of workmen and personally
superintended the work, they introduced into England something of the
French thoroughness in combining interior decoration with the prevailing
style of furniture. But it was form and symmetry which was the govern-
ing note with them and their school. The rise and development of the
colourists was to come later. To this day many invoices and accounts for
furniture of the eighteenth century are preserved by the descendants of
their patrons. Lord St Oswald has a library table made for his ancestors
by Chippendale, and the bill for it is religiously kept in one of the
drawers :

"To a large mahogany library table, of very fine wood, with doors on
each side of the bottom part and drawers within on one side and partitions
on the other, with terms to ditto carved and ornamented with lions' heads
and paws, with carved ovals in pannels of the doors, and the top covered
with black leather, and the whole compleatly finished in the most elegant
taste, >C725 I OS."

The present value of this table would be, if it were offered at Christie's,
something like _;^2,ooo. At the recent sale at Holm Lacy, the seat of the
Earl of Chesterfield, a Chippendale bookcase realised eighteen hundred
guineas.

The Chinese taste of the middle eighteenth century finds its monu-
ment in the pagoda of Sir William Chambers at Kew Gardens, and in the
willow-pattern plate first produced at Caughley. But Chippendale and the
school he founded is still a living influence ; there is no more popular
term in latter-day furniture styles than " Chippendale." He has been
plagiarised, he has been copied, he has been forged. A thousand atrocities

THOMAS CHIPPENDALE xiii

have been perpetrated in his name, "defamed by every charh^tan and soiled
with all i'j;noble use," but his memory lives green in the hearts of all lovers
of the finest traditions in English furniture. He was the pioneer at the
taste of his day, and the lawgiver to the cabinet-makers scattered up and
down the country, who rapidly produced good work on his lines ; and his
restless virility as a carver, as a designer, and as a master craftsman have
won him a niche in the temple of tame.

Arthur Havden.

THE GENTLEMAN AND
CABINET-MAKER'S DIRECTOR

THE

GENTLEMAN

AND

CABINET-MAKER'S

DIRECTOR.

BEING A L A R G K

COLLECTION

OF T H E M O S T

Elegant and Ufeful Deligns of Houlhold Furniture

IN THE

GOTHIC, CHINESE and MODERN TASTE:

Including a great Variety of

HOOK-CASES tor Libraries or Private Rooms,

COMMODES,

LIBRARY and WRITING-TABLES,

BUROES, BREAKFAST-TABLES

DRESSING and CHINA-TABLES,

CHINA-CASES, HANGING-SHELVES,

TEA-CHESTS, TRAYS, FIRE-SCREENS,
CHAIRS, SETTEES, SOPHA'S, BEDS,
PRESSES and CLOATHS-CHESTS,
PIER-GLASS SCONCES, SLAB FRAMES,
BRACKETS, CANDLE-STANDS,
CLOCK-CASES, FRETS,

AND OTHER

ORNAMENTS.

THE WHOLE COMPREHENDED IN

ONE HUNDRED and SIXTY COPPER-PLATES neatly Engraved,

Calculated to improve and refine the prelent Talte, and lliited to
the Fancy and Circumllances of Perlbns in all Degrees of Life.

Dulciqiif an'nuos iiov'iiatc tfiicho. — Ovin.
Lmkntis fpii'uiii dab'it ft torqucl'itiir. — HoR.

THOMAS CHIPPENDALE

Of ST. MARTIN'S LANE, CABINET-MAKER

L () N D () N,

Printed for the AUTHOR and Sold at his houiV in St. Martin\s lane. M.DCCLIV.

Alio by T. OsiiORNE, Bookfeller in Gray's-Inn ; H. I'liius, Hooklellcr, in 1 lolboiii ; R. S.wi.u, rriiufeller in I'lcct LStrect;

J. Swan, near Northumbciland-Houfe, in the Strand; At I^DINIJDRGH by Melirs. HAMiuroN aiul Balfour:

and at DUBLIN by Mr. John SMrni, on the Blind-Ouay.

THE

PREFACE

,F all the Arts which are either improved or ornamented by
Architecture, that of CABINET-MAKING is not only
the most useful and ornamental, but capable of receiving
as great assistance from it as any whatever. I have there-
fore prefixed to the following designs a short explanation of the five
orders. Without an acquaintance with this science, and some knowledge
of the rules of Perspective, the Cabinet-Maker cannot make the designs
of his work intelligible, nor shew, in a little compass, the whole
conduct and effect of the piece. These, therefore, ought to be care-
fully studied by every one who would excel in this branch, since they
are the very soul and basis of his art.

The Title-Page has already called the following work. The Gcntlcwcui
and Cahinct-Makcr s Director^ as being calculated to assist the one in the
choice, and the other in the execution of the designs ; which are so
contrived, that if no one drawing should singly answer the Gentleman's
taste, there will yet be found a variety of hints sufficient to construct
a new one.

I have been encouraged to begin and carry on this work not only
(as the puff in the play-bill says) by persons of distinction, but of
eminent taste tor performances of this sort ; who have, upon many
occasions, signified some surprize and regret, that an art capable of
so much perfection and refinement, should be executed with so little
propriety and elegance. How far the following sheets may remove a
complaint which I am afVaid is not altogether groundless, the judicious
reader will determine : I hope, however, the novelty, as well as the
usefulness of the performance, will make some atonement for its faults
and imperfections. I am sensible there are too many to be found in
it ; for I frankly confess, that in executing many of the drawings, my
pencil has but faintly copied out those images that my fancy suggested,
and had they not been published till I could have pronounced them
perfect, perhaps they never had seen the light. Nevertheless, I was not
upon that account afraid to let them go abroad for I have been told
that the greatest masters of every other art have laboured under the
same difficulty.
xix

XX PREFACE

A late writer, of distinguished taste and abilities, speaking of the
delicacy of every author of genius with respect to his own perform-
ances, observes, that he has the continual mortification to find himself
incapable of taking entire possession of that ideal beauty that warms
and fills his imagination.

Never, savs he (in a quotation from Tully), was any thing more
beautiful than the Venus of Apelles, or the Jove of Phidias, yet were
they by no means equal to those high notions ot beauty which animated
the geniuses of those wonderful artists. The case is the same in all
arts where taste and imagination are concerned ; and I am persuaded
that he who can survey his own works with every satisfaction and
complacency, will hardly ever find the world of the same favourable
opinion with himself.

I am not afraid of the fate an author usually meets with on his
first appearance, from a set of critics who are never wanting to shew
their wit and malice on the performances of others : I shall repay their
censures with contempt. Let them unmolested deal out their pointless
abuse, and convince the world they have neither good nature to com-
mend, judgment to correct, nor skill to execute what they find fault
with.

The correction of the judicious and impartial I shall always
receive with diffidence in my own abilities and respect to theirs. But
though the following designs were more perfect than my fondness for
my own offspring could ever suppose them, I should yet be far from
expecting the united approbation of ALL those whose sentiments have
an undoubted claim to be regarded ; for a thousand accidental circum-
stances may concur in dividing the opinions of the most improved
judges, and the most unprejudiced will find it difficult to disengage
himself from a partial affection to some particular beauties, of which
the general course of his studies, or the peculiar cast of his temper
may have rendered him most sensible. The mind, when pronouncing
judgment upon any work of taste and genius, is apt to decide of its
merit according as those circumstances which she most admires either
prevail or are deficient. Thus, for instance (says the ingenious author
before quoted), the excellency of the Kotnan masters in painting consists
in beauty of design^ nobleness of attitude, and delicacy of expression,
but the charms of good colouring are wanting : On the contrary, the
Venetian school is said to have neglected design a little too much, but
at the same time has been more attentive to the grace and harmony
of well-disposed lights and shades. Now it will be admitted by all
admirers of this noble art, that no composition of the pencil can be
perfect when either of these qualities are absent ; yet the most accom-
plished judge may be so particularly struck with one or other of these

PREFACE xxi

excellences, in preference to the rest, as to be influenced in his censure
or applause ot the whole tablature, by the predominacy or deficiency
of his favourite beauty. Something): of this kind, tho' the followinir
sheets had all the perfection of human composition, would no doubt
subject them in many things to the censure of the most approved
judges, whose applause I should esteem my greatest honour, and whose
correction I shall ever be proud to improve by.

Upon the whole, I have given no design but what may be executed
with advantage by the hands ot a skilful workman, tho' some of
the profession have been diligent enough to represent them (especially
those after the Gothic and Chinese manner) as so many specious drawings,
impossible to be worked off by any mechanic whatsoever. I will not
scruple to attribute this to malice, ignorance, and inability : And I am
confident I can convince all Noblemen, Gentlemen, or others, who will
honour me with their commands, that every design in the book can
be improved, both as to beauty and enrichment, in the execution of
it, by

T/h'/'r Most Obedient Servuiit,

Thomas Chippendale.

St Martin's Lane,

March 23, 1754.

CONTENTS

CHIPPENDALE

THE GENTLEMAN AND CABINET-MAKER'S DIRECTOR

Bed, Canopy,

Bed, Chinese,

Bed, Design for.

Bed, Dome,

Bed, Gothic,

Bookcase, Library,

Brackets for Busts,

Brackets for liusts,

Brackets for Marble Slabs,

Brackets for JNLarble Slabs,

Cabinet, .

Cabinet,

Cabinet, Chinese,

Cabinet, Gothic,

Candle Stands, .

Chairs, Chinese Design, with or without

arms

Chairs, Chinese Design, showing variety o

styles for legs, ....

Chairs, Chinese Design, showing variety o

styles for legs

Chairs, French Design, with or without arms

Chairs, Gothic Design, showing variety o

styles for legs, ....

Chairs, Gothic Design, showing variety o

styles for legs, ....

Chairs, Ribband-back Designs, .

Chairs, showing various styles for legs.

Chests of Drawers, showing different styles,

Chests of Drawers, ....

Chests, Tea,

Chest, Tea,

China Case,

China Shelf,

China Shelves,

Clock Cases,

Clock Case, Table, .

Clothes Chest, .

Clothes Chests, .

Clothes Chest, .

Clothes Chest, Gothic,

Clothes Press,

Clothes Press, Design showing d

Clothes Press, .

Commode Clothes Press,

Commode Table, French,

Commode Tables, French,

Cornice for window or bed,

Cornices for windows or beds,

( 'ornices for windows or beds.

Desk Bookcase,

Desk Bookcase, showing differe

Desk Bookcase,

I^esk Bookcase,

Desk Bookcase,

Desk liookcase,

Dressing Chest and Bookcase,

Fire Screens,

Fire Screen,

Fire Screens,

Fire Screen, Horse,

Frames for Marble Slabs,

Frames for ATarble Slabs,

Frames for Pier Glasses,

iffcre

nt sly

t styl

26
48
49

es, 41
48
so

41
36

37
38

39
14
16
21

17
iS

24
19

4
8

II
3
9

CONTENTS

PACE

TAGE

l'"rames for Pier Glasses, . . . .14

Sideboard Table, ..... 28

Frames for Pier Glasses,

Sideboard Table,

Frets,

Sideboard Table,

3°

Frets,

Sofas, Chinese, .

Frets,

Table, Breakfast,

Girandoles,

Table, lireakfast,

Girandoles,

Table, Bureau, .

Girandoles,

Table, Bureau,

Girandoles,

Table, Bureau,

Shelves, Hanging,

Table, China,

Shelves, Hanging,

Table, China,

Shelves, Hanging,

Table, Library,

Shelves, Hanging,

Table, Library,

Shields for Pediments,

Table, Library,

Shields for Pediments,

Table, \Vriting,

Shields for Pediments,

Table, AVriting,

Sideboard Table,

Table, Writing,

Sideboard Table,

Table, Writing,

Sideboard Table,

Trays, China, showing

desi

Tns fc

r border.

CHIPPENDALE

Ril)l);uKl-l)ack Chairs and Imtc Screens

CHIPPENDALE

Chairs, showing varioLis styles for Legs, and Lantlle Stands

■I

CHIPPENDALE

Cliairs, showing \';iriou.s st)-lcs for Legs, and Horse I'ire Screen

CHIPPENDALE

Chairs, showing various styles for Legs, Pire Screens and Candle Stands

CHIPPENDALE

Chair, Chinese design, with or without arms, Candle Stands, and two Chairs showin>

a variety of styles lor L(;gs

CHIPPENDALE

Hyxvf

Chairs, Chinese desii^n, showiii''' \arious styles for Le<>s

CHIPPENDALE

Chairs, Chinese design, and two Gothic, showing varit)us styles for Legs

CHIPPENDALE

Chairs, (iothic d(/siL;n, showiny various styles for Legs, and iMre Screei

CHIPPENDALE

French Chairs, with or without arms, and a variety of styles for Legs, anc

Horse Lire Screen
c

CHIPPENDALE

^^^jrN^iSs,.

French Chairs, vviili or without arms, and various styles for Le^s, and (Jir.indol

CHIPPENDALE

Pier Cilass Frames and Fire Screens

CHIPPENDALE

Four designs for Pier Glass Frames, and two llorse Fire Screens

CHIPPENDALE

Girandoles and I'ier Glass Frames

CHIPPENDALE

Cornicij Girandole, two designs for Pier (ilass iM-amcs, ami Iwo (l(>sic;ns ior

ShicKls lor Pediments

CHIPPENDALE

■Tl

i^^

i'^^

ly.

Hanginc^ Shelves, two designs for Pier Glasses, two designs for Shields lor
Pediments, and four Brackets for Marble Slabs

CHIPPENDALE

'-.'^■iJ^L^C--:. ^i^i- V"VlL#=

Curnices for Beds or Wiiulovvs, Shiflds for I'l diincnls, China Trays and

Table Clock Case

CHIPPENDALE

( liiMiulolcs, and Desk aiul liookcasc

CHIPPENDALE

Desk and Bookcase

CHIPPENDALE

Brackets for Busts, L^ressin^■ Chest and Bookcase, Clock Cases, and liureaii Table

CHIPPENDALE

t- v',-

■±J

iT'^

Clock Cases, Desk and ISookcase, Tea Chesls, and liurfau Table

CHIPPENDALE

Cornice, Caiulle Stands, antl Desk and liookcasc

CHIPPENDALE

Table Clock Cases, Dressing' Chesl and Bookcase. China and IJreakfast '["ablcs

CHIPPENDALE

■?!?p^^ei)f:,— »lH'- -f . "

■ iS^JiafeiisiiSai^f)

\Si

Brackets for Marble Slabs, Desk aiul liookcase, China and llreakfast Tables

CHIPPENDALE

Desk and Bookcase

CHIPPENDALE

-JJ

,?^isafei;kj^..i ^-^y'lrtia'Tug

^r-

— /I

China Case and Sideboard TabU

CHIPPENDALE

China Case, Sideboard Table, and Clothes Press

CHIPPENDALE

IJnickcts fur 1 Justs, Caljincl, Tea Clicsl, and Sitlclioard Tabic

CHIPPENDALE

-o^ii

Commode Clothes Press, Sideboard Tal)le, and Tea Chest

CHIPPENDALE

^/nr^^t/Vrs.

Wriliii''- and Sideboard Tables

CHIPPENDALE

Tf i-

I -^t. "\vhk2.^^^)^i>^

■.r^^i' ■"■"I " ■liiimip'ii Mil I yllir»iijii'

Sideboard and Writing Tables, and Tea Chest

CHIPPENDALE

-K

{^_

n rtjn

?Qn

' A ^

1 f 7

XflA

' 1 / \ ,

!lllH."^l,!,i|l.lvll-^lV

Frets, and Writing- Table

CHIPPENDALE

'V^^^^^^^'^^^^^^^^l

, ^/'

\._

rfc-r

-?l

\' \ Ai V ' V Al \^-

A>T)^>T)W>T)'

'n— , |-~S I— in ' i' A-1 1-^ I— 1^

)2©>23^2i

'^^<^

——,-.-.

"/^

'"^/^/^

,^L__

f -^ 1 1

r / 1 1

Li__ 1

1 ,

N '

.x^

,<,^

.< .<

A ^A '^'

UL^y^t-^-Ui-^

■'-;_-

i 1^^ ^ '7/v' ^-7<p^-7 <->zr^ <piz^ <?i:7 <?2S7 <pzt

zll

:cm

\^ ^T X-'^ai

^znr:>2::}zii

U;^>^iA-i>-JiA^>-Jn;-A>Y-

;a_7 r ^ ;<_7 ^ ^ A ~ - ^ A - - :£a^
, i-A-'^( ^V^C ^V^C L-V^( ■=

:^iT-:

aH — ^'-^.K'

•^)^^

''L(V(V('r('t(V(V('t(V(j:(|

Frets

CHIPPENDALE

ChiiKi Slu.-If and IIan<'in<'- Shelves

CHIPPENDALE

r""^~l# f

Brackets for Busts, China Shelves, Candle Stands, ManL^ini;' Shelves

CHIPPENDALE

Frames lor Marble; Slabs and French Commode Table

CHIPPENDALE

>'^

y^'NrW'^iW

(".Dlhic ("lolhcs Chest and Im-ciicIi Commoclf Table

CHIPPENDALE

Ul\y^'— '"~TU.,

French Commode Tables

CHIPPENDALE

""-'•■"•■'■^IWPWi

^u^--"^V

" t

^^^

French Commode Tables

CHIPPENDALE

Cabinet and Frames for Marble Slabs

CHIPPENDALE

--*^ ^^'

Commode Clothes Press, Clothes Chest, and Clothes Press

CHIPPENDALE

Two Dcsit'iis for Clothes Chest, and Liljr<ir\- Bookcase

CHIPPENDALE

::i

nr^'^n"^.-

':'i

;ja!ili!ii!lihiii«

Library IJookcases

CHIPPENDALE

Library Bookcases

CHIPPENDALE

1 I i

0 <^

/ \ ^/ \,

< 0

A A

./ \J

^/ \J

A A
V/ V

0 a

\/^

./\J

;/\,

A A

0 <^

A /I

'\ /I

*^ j)^*Mii.jvww^-r

Library Bookcas<;*s

CHIPPENDALE

Writing Tabic and Library Bookcase

CHIPPENDALE

Mr^

TX " "\.

^i3

•3

Two Chests (if Drawers and Library Bookcase

CHIPPENDALE

Chest of Drawers, Clothes Press, China Case, and Frets

CHIPPENDALE

China Cases

CHIPPENDALE

-^^.

CHIPPENDALE

l^^^^

j:3

CHIPPENDALE

!i ^di.a'

i><1

i*y'

(hiiui and Bureau Tables

CHIPPENDALE

Clothes Chests and Cabinet

CHIPPENDALE

Clolhcs Chests and Library Tables

CHIPPENDALE

jll!i;lffl;iillBlKT::i|i'i:i'::'ii:'7;:iii«ni'::':;:::iii'.1l;:!!!lil|!j|

'./\ [ 'l.t tT~iT\ J \ n i 1T1TT7- , I ,'^~7^Tf'

Library Tables

CHIPPENDALE

''"-"Sfciii^^

Library Tables

CHIPPENDALE

Dome Beds

CHIPPENDALE

Canopy Bed

CHIPPENDALE

Chinese Bed

CHIPPENDALE

'^>A^^Af\>\KK^^J^^^^.^^^

ii;«(S7l3CaC"

i.BU--^;<uiiiulimi«Jiij^^M^

Gothic Bed

CHIPPENDALE

Gothic Bed

CHIPPENDALE

Desien for a Bed

CHIPPENDALE

X; ■

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY

DO NOT

REMOVE

THE

CARD

FROM

THIS

POCKET

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